Toothbrushes
by Claire Poncherrii
Summary: Natsume and Mikan's son asks a question, "What does it mean to have a family?" which leads her to tell Natsume a surprising news. Years later, the family faces a problem: their daughter won't brush her teeth! Will Natsume save the day yet again? One-shot.


**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own "Gakuen Alice."_

**_A/N:_**_ Hey guys! It's a one-shot from me again! I'm going to my vacation house for a while this Saturday so I have some free time between now and then. This one shot was inspired by a quote from the movie, "More Than Blue" ("A family means a lot of toothbrushes in the holder.") Zakuro, the name of Mikan and Natsume's son, means "pomegranate" in Japanese. Their daughter, Raimu, means "lime," in Japanese. I thought I'd stick with Mikan (tangerine) and Natsume (date) fruit names. "Ruru" is pronounced "Lulu," just as how "Ruka" is pronounced, "Luca." Enjoy, everyone!_

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**Toothbrushes**

_By Claire Poncherrii_

"Mommy?" A little brunette tried to catch his mother's attention by tugging on her skirt edge.

"Yes sweetie?" Mikan turned from the table, placing the butter knife down.

"Mommy," Zakuro asked as she bent down, "what does it mean to have a family?"

Mikan thought, as she stared at her three year old son, trying to figure a way to explain it to a young child. She always found Zakuro asking questions and doing things a three year wouldn't be able to do yet. It didn't surprise the mother anymore.

"It means," Mikan started, "to have a lot of toothbrushes in the cup."

Mikan was satisfied with her answer, deciding it was cute answer, smiling to herself as she got up again.

"But Mommy," red eyes looked up, "we only have three brushes in our cup!"

"That's all it takes, Kuro. More than one."

Zakuro was silent, thinking as he crawled up on a deck chair on the porch, and nibbled on the PB&J Mikan placed in front of him.

"Mommy," he called out after she went in to put the knife and jam jar back, "can we have more toothbrushes?"

Back inside, Mikan laughed, looking down and then turning, "We'll see."

**xoxo**

"Natsume," Mikan said, as they tucked Zakuro in his bed. Natsume, his fingers in Zakuro's sleeping hair, looked up at his wife.

"Yeah, Polka?"

"Don't call me that!" she wispered loudly, causing the two the cringe when Zakuro turned. He was a light sleeper.

The two got up silently and Mikan wispered again, "We have three toothbrushes right?"

He nodded, turning off the light in the room as the couple left their son's room. Natsume put an arm around Mikan's waist, and closed the door. The stars Hotaru put up in the room when Zakuro was born glowed, almost as beautiful as the night sky outside.

"I think we'll have four soon."

**xoxo**

"Mommy, Daddy," Zakuro looked up from his new sister's crib, catching the attention of his parents from the group of old friends, chatting.

"When are we going to get Raimu a toothbrush too?"

The friends laughed, and Natsume picked up Zakuro so he could have a better look at Raimu's sleeping figure.

"When she grows teeth like you, Zakuro," he laughed with his son.

**xoxo**

"No!" a brown eyed girl cried, Mikan looking worried with a toothbrush in hand.

"I don't want to brush my teeth," Raimu stated again, tears pouring out.

"Rai," Zakuro came out of the hallway, into his sister's room, "brush your teeth."

"No! You can't tell me what to do," she wined again, at her older brother.

"If you don't, your breath will smell yucky and the kids in your class will make fun of you," he taunted.

Raimu looked down on her foot, still shaking her head.

"Narumi-sensei won't be happy, and Jin-Jin will give you detention," Zakuro said, Mikan scolding him for making his little sister cry again.

"Zakuro, Raimu," Natsume entered the room this time, "the driver's waiting. You're going to be late for school."

"Natsume," Mikan looked up at her suit-clad husband, "Raimu won't brush her teeth."

The father chuckled, poking his daughter in the stomach, making her giggle, "Hey, Mumu, did you know it was your brother who picked out your toothbrush?"

"Dad!"

"Really?" she sniffed, looking at her bright pink brush with glitter on it.

"Yeah," he smirked, glancing at his son. He continued, ruffling her raven locks, "There was only one left and he wanted it, but he decided to give it up for you."

"What? That's not true!"

Raimu started laughing again, "I'm going to tell everyone! Auntie Hotaru, Uncle Ruka, Auntie Aoi, Auntie Sumire, Ruru, Uncle..."

"Don't tell Ruru!" Zakuro pinched his little sister's cheek, making her push him back.

"Hey, hey, hey," Mikan pulled Raimu off, "your father's going to be late for his meeting. Come on, Mumu, we'll get our teeth clean super clean alright?"

"Don't be so troublesome, Rai," the brother stuck out his tongue, "I don't want to be late too!"

"Probably so you'll see Ruru," Natsume smirked, mentioning his best friend's daughter.

"No! It's because... I want to play Alice-dodge ball with everyone!" Zakuro turned red.

"Wait," Natsume realized his son had just came out of the kitchen right before when they heard the commotion, "did _you_ brush your teeth?"

"Um..."

**The End**

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**_A/N:_**_ Zakuro and Raimu both inherited their parents' alices, and Gakuen Alice is not a boarding school anymore. The setting is probably after all the Alice Academy reforms and war. So it's basically when everything's settled. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading and please leave a review! ~Claire Poncherrii_

_****__Plagiarism Note: __I have seen a lot of plagiarism cases, especially at FP's sister site, fictionpress, and I hate it. In no way is plagiarism okay. It's the worst thing ever, and if you do it then you deserve to go through the harshest punishments in the universe. And you WILL get that-- from me. Got it? Because you better: for your own safety and everyone else's. I'm sure everyone has talent to write their own work rather than copy other people's. From now on, this little note will be at the end of all my updates, and if you'd like to use it too, please let me know. Thanks for reading._


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